I agree that many perhaps prefer the face to face contact

these days, their are so many chances to meet face to face- through facebook, or through local meetings, what ever.

maybe it's just forums are going out of fashion
their arn't many forums online related to bipolar disorder (or at least not what I've found), and it could be that the ones that exist either they don't know about, or they have been on them but had bad experiences

or just people feel that they need more than just an online forum for support